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"Muddy Heaven"
Love you, too
Like many of you here, for years I have been searching for a place with bottomless, creamy mud. A place where I could get completely covered head to toe. A muddy heaven if you will. Well yesterday I did experience this heaven and I wanted to share. A bit of backstory:
I live in a high desert climate. My landlocked city has a river running through the middle of it. In the summer we hit temperatures on average of 100* F. I have wished for years that somewhere in the middle of these circumstances I would find my muddy heaven. I have explored the river banks many times over the years. I have found ankle deep glorious black clay from time time. It has been fun to "play" in but I have always been left longing for more.
Rewind back a few weeks from today. I walked across a trail that passes a pond adjacent to the river. I have walked past this pond with my dog and family many times in the past. Luckily, this time I walked past as the pond was nearing it's empty cycle that comes at the end of every summer irrigation season. Low and behold, a giant mud pit! Or so I thought. On a return trip to this empty pond, I find only ankle deep mud, once again
Not secluded at all. With a little more research on google maps, I find that this pond is skirted by a larger marshland. Time to explore more 
.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon in the marshland (see pics): After hiking down the bluff that leads to the marshland and pushing thought the reeds I find myself on the cracked landscape that is the telltale sign of once deep mud. The cracks are at least 6" deep so I know I am in the right place. The mud is too dry to even break through and I can easily walk across the surface. Hoping to find some remnant of wet mud, I push on. Through more reeds I find dampness!! I follow. The reeds open up into a larger mud hole with water!!
. Hallelujah! And that's where heaven starts. I push forward into the mud puddle, knowing that the same deep mud is below. And it is. And it receives me. Knee deep, black silky goodness...
So I found it. After combing google maps for local quarries, looking out longingly on the rivers of other cities I visit. A 6 minute drive, 10 min walk from my house. Unfortunately, this was our last forecasted 80*F plus day. Fall is here. . .finally. Sadly. . . for the mud. Snow is forecasted for Monday/Tuesday (our weather changes pretty drastically sometimes). I have a family to be present for today. But I found my epic spot. I did get waist deep (sorry no pics/vid of me as my hands were already covered form a muddy fall
), but that's it. There was not enough water to clean a full submersion. It was fun and glorious and I will be back. . .I hope to share more with you all one day.
For those of you searching for your muddy heaven, keep a lookout for ponds or lakes. The water levels, at least in our part of the world, rise and fall with the seasons. Usually revealing some form of glorious mud at the low points. Spring they are filling up (a good mud opportunity), summer they are full (too much water not enough mud) and fall they are draining (another good mud opportunity).
Your fellow WAM enthusiast,
Andrew
I live in a high desert climate. My landlocked city has a river running through the middle of it. In the summer we hit temperatures on average of 100* F. I have wished for years that somewhere in the middle of these circumstances I would find my muddy heaven. I have explored the river banks many times over the years. I have found ankle deep glorious black clay from time time. It has been fun to "play" in but I have always been left longing for more.
Rewind back a few weeks from today. I walked across a trail that passes a pond adjacent to the river. I have walked past this pond with my dog and family many times in the past. Luckily, this time I walked past as the pond was nearing it's empty cycle that comes at the end of every summer irrigation season. Low and behold, a giant mud pit! Or so I thought. On a return trip to this empty pond, I find only ankle deep mud, once again
Not secluded at all. With a little more research on google maps, I find that this pond is skirted by a larger marshland. Time to explore more . Fast forward to yesterday afternoon in the marshland (see pics): After hiking down the bluff that leads to the marshland and pushing thought the reeds I find myself on the cracked landscape that is the telltale sign of once deep mud. The cracks are at least 6" deep so I know I am in the right place. The mud is too dry to even break through and I can easily walk across the surface. Hoping to find some remnant of wet mud, I push on. Through more reeds I find dampness!! I follow. The reeds open up into a larger mud hole with water!!
. Hallelujah! And that's where heaven starts. I push forward into the mud puddle, knowing that the same deep mud is below. And it is. And it receives me. Knee deep, black silky goodness... So I found it. After combing google maps for local quarries, looking out longingly on the rivers of other cities I visit. A 6 minute drive, 10 min walk from my house. Unfortunately, this was our last forecasted 80*F plus day. Fall is here. . .finally. Sadly. . . for the mud. Snow is forecasted for Monday/Tuesday (our weather changes pretty drastically sometimes). I have a family to be present for today. But I found my epic spot. I did get waist deep (sorry no pics/vid of me as my hands were already covered form a muddy fall
), but that's it. There was not enough water to clean a full submersion. It was fun and glorious and I will be back. . .I hope to share more with you all one day. For those of you searching for your muddy heaven, keep a lookout for ponds or lakes. The water levels, at least in our part of the world, rise and fall with the seasons. Usually revealing some form of glorious mud at the low points. Spring they are filling up (a good mud opportunity), summer they are full (too much water not enough mud) and fall they are draining (another good mud opportunity).
Your fellow WAM enthusiast,
Andrew
Awesome find man! I know all too well about the painful search for bottomless mud, combing through satellite images and drooling over some of the dreamy spots others get to play in. Fortunately I didn't have to search hard for my first spot but if you're anything like me the search doesn't end there. If I could offer one piece of advice: buy a GoPro (or any camera that you can get dirty). Film yourself and savour the moment. Make the most of good weather because once winter arrives you'll wish you went mudding more 
Thanks for the responses guys! It is always great to hear from likeminded people, especially since sometimes this fetish can be a little alienating.
Brownie, thanks for the GoPro advice, Xmas is coming. Amazing profile pics by the way!
TonyA, the more and more that I explore I am finding ponds/lakes are great because the still waters allow for more sediment accumulation than faster moving rivers. I was worried about being spotted by locals or even worse police or the like. The bright side of this worry, for a wammer, is that your a way better camouflaged if you are covered head to toe in mud
Brownie, thanks for the GoPro advice, Xmas is coming. Amazing profile pics by the way!
TonyA, the more and more that I explore I am finding ponds/lakes are great because the still waters allow for more sediment accumulation than faster moving rivers. I was worried about being spotted by locals or even worse police or the like. The bright side of this worry, for a wammer, is that your a way better camouflaged if you are covered head to toe in mud
Yep, typically slower moving water will mean finer sized sediment being deposited too, which is a bonus. Hence one of my favourite spots being a brackish lagoon off a small tidal river, which fills and empties quite gradually.
I take a little Crosstour action camera with me, like a cheaper copy of a GoPro, and mount it on a stick I can push into the mud. My only real complaint with it over a more expensive camera is that something internally rattles when I move it and that picks up on the internal mic.
I take a little Crosstour action camera with me, like a cheaper copy of a GoPro, and mount it on a stick I can push into the mud. My only real complaint with it over a more expensive camera is that something internally rattles when I move it and that picks up on the internal mic.
